Ole Miss MCBB Team Violates NCAA Tampering Rules, Full Punishment Announced

The NCAA has announced discipline against Mississippi men's basketball program stemming from tampering violations under former assistant coach Wes Flanigan.

Per a release from the NCAA, the full list of penalties against Ole Miss includes a $455,000 fine and two years of probation:

• Two years of probation. 
• $455,000 fine.
• A one-week ban on all recruiting communications for the men's basketball program, served during the 2025-26 academic year.
• A one-week prohibition on unofficial and official visits for the men's basketball program, served during the 2024-25 academic year.
• A one-week prohibition on all recruiting communications for Flanigan, served during the 2024-25 academic year.
• A reduction by five in recruiting-person days for the men's basketball program served during the 2024-25 academic year.
• A one-year show-cause order for Flanigan, including a suspension and recruiting communication restrictions. The suspension was served in December 2025 and recruiting restrictions were served in the 2024-25 academic year.
• A two-game suspension for Flanigan, served from Dec. 13-17, 2025.
• Disassociation of the booster for two years.
• The athletics director and a senior member of the Ole Miss Athletic Foundation were required to attend the 2026 NCAA Regional Rules Seminar.

The release notes the case was resolved through the negotiated resolution process, which means the NCAA, school and individual parties involved agreed to "violation, level, classification and penalties" to reach a resolution.

Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard was deemed "automatically responsible for the violations due to head coach responsibility legislation," but wasn't directly disciplined since he wasn't directly involved in the violations and wasn't aware of the impermissible contact.

The violation stems from Flanigan's contact with the advisor of a student-athlete from another school who had not entered the transfer portal at the time.

Flanigan's contact with the advisor included 16 phone conversations and 10 text messages.

"In those communications, Flanigan and the advisor spoke about the student-athlete, but the student-athlete ― who subsequently was entered into the Transfer Portal ― did not visit Ole Miss, did not receive an offer of an athletics scholarship and ultimately transferred to another school," the NCAA wrote.

Flanigan spent three seasons as an assistant on Beard's staff at Ole Miss from 2023 to '26. The two previously worked together during the 2015-16 season when Beard was the head coach at Little Rock.

In April, Flanigan left Mississippi to take an associate head coach job at Georgia Tech under new head coach Scott Cross.